Tech

Microsoft Build 2014: Windows 8.1 Update, Cloud Mania and More

Microsoft will play host to thousands of developers, partners and press at its annual Build conference this week. The company and newbie CEO Satya Nadella have a lot on the agenda, covering everything from Windows to Office to devices.

Didn't we just do this? Build 2014 comes just nine months after the previous one, and that conference — which saw a change of venue from Redmond, Wash., to San Francisco — was a mere nine months after Build 2012.

It's no accident that Microsoft is putting the pedal to the metal. The company would say the accelerated schedule represents the way of the world now, with rapid-fire updates and a near-constant churn of new apps and services. "Move fast and break things," is much more than just a Facebook slogan these days.

But in Microsoft's case there's more to it than that. The company is playing both catch-up and damage control. Its smartphone and tablet platforms came later than its competitors' and the bold strategy surrounding touch-friendly Windows 8 (and later 8.1) didn't really work out as planned. PC sales have continued to slide and most of the people who led that launch have left the company.

Not to mention there's a new man at the top. Nadella, who replaced the polarizing Steve Ballmer, will kick off the proceedings in the opening day keynote Wednesday morning. With this crowd, though, it's not a big leap: Nadella has led the Day 2 keynote for the past few years, and he'll be in his element in front of an audience of developers, most of whom are as in love with the cloud as he is.

But this time, as CEO, Nadella is also playing to a mainstream crowd, too. The company may be making reams of cash, but its influence on everyday "computing" is still on the wane. He'll need to convince observers that Microsoft can fix its platform issues while exciting them about what's still to come.

Here's what some of that might entail.

Windows 8.1 Update

Microsoft's most substantive announcement, the Windows 8.1 Update, has already leaked. It includes many new features, almost all of them to improve the experience for mouse-and-keyboard setups. The desktop, and the taskbar, regain their prominence on those machines, and the default setting boots the user into the desktop.

The changes represent what will probably be the last, and most essential, course correction on the path Microsoft embarked on with Windows 8. From the start the OS was criticized for going too far with touch Windows on traditional machines, where the user would typically spend the most time in the desktop anyway. The changes might not silence all the critics, but it may win over a few more upgrades, particularly among Microsoft's crucial business customers.

Windows upgrade for free?

In March, a rumor circulated that Microsoft may offer a version of Windows 8.1 that would be a free download for users running Windows 7 or earlier. The catch would be that the software would be powered, if not sponsored, by Bing. It's unclear exactly how that would work, but Amazon's ad-supported Kindles may provide the template.

However, there's a chance that the rumor is just that. Although a screenshot surfaced of a PC running "Windows 8.1 With Bing," it's possible it was just an experiment, or meant something else entirely.

Office for touch Windows preview

Microsoft unveiled Office for iPad last week, and at that event Nadella said the company would have more to say about Office on other platforms at Build. A version of Office that runs in the Modern/Metro environment made a closed-door appearance at last year's conference, but there are big technical leaps to actually convert it, which is why the current version still runs in the desktop.

Most likely we'll see a preview and possibly a release date for Touch Office, but not much more. If Modern Office was close to launch, Microsoft probably would have released it with the iPad version.

Windows Phone moves forward

The last Windows Phone update gave the platform phablets, and the next one — said to be called Windows Phone 8.1 — will give it a voice assistant, according to leaks. Codenamed "Cortana," the update will put Windows Phone in the same league as iOS and Android, which have had sophisticated voice control for years.

Also rumored to be part of the update: VPN support, Internet Explorer 11 and an overhauled camera interface. The first phones may hit as early as late April. By then, Nokia may even be officially part of Microsoft.

Azure, Bing and OneDrive

The unsung heroes of Build have always been Microsoft's services, but now they'll likely get some extra play for a couple of reasons: First, Nadella has put the cloud front and center in Microsoft's game plan. And second, they're actually pretty good these days.

After a slight rebranding, Microsoft's Azure cloud now matches Amazon Web Services' pricing. OneDrive, the most public-facing service, is now intimately tied with Windows, and the tools it offers — such as cheap cloud storage and real-time collaboration — work well. And Bing's data continues to spread to more apps since Microsoft opened it up to developers last year.

Surface Mini

When Microsoft refreshed its Surface lineup last fall, something was missing: a small-size tablet. Windows 8.1 enables smaller form factors, and several have appeared on the market since its release. Will Microsoft's house "mini" tablet finally arrive at Build?

Rumors say the Surface Mini will get its big unveiling at the conference, and that may happen, but considering the lack of substantive leaks, the release date will probably be later in the year, possibly the summer.

Sings of Windows 9

With the Windows 8.1 Update, Microsoft takes Windows 8 about as far as it can go in terms of pleasing critics. It's also been about a year and a half since its initial release — the halfway point, if the previous two versions of Windows, Vista and 7, are any indication.

Microsoft has certainly begun work on "Windows 9," or whatever it ends up being called, but it's still a bit early for any major announcements. Windows 8 made its official pubic appearance at the summer Computex show in Taiwan in 2011, and that was still a very early look. Microsoft may repeat that pattern, or it may hold another event in the fall, assuming it keeps the same three-year schedule.

Could mining

That doesn't mean we won't get hints of where the company is going with all this. Among all the product announcements, Nadella will set a tone and lay out a vision for what Microsoft will do — and more important, what it will represent to technology — in the coming years.

Where Steve Ballmer saw "devices and services," Nadella sees "cloud and mobile." It's basically the same thing, but subtly different (note the order of the terms). Nadella's Microsoft puts new emphasis on the power of our devices to connect us — to apps, data, media and the wonders emerging from minds of Silicon Valley and beyond.

It sounds straightforward, but it's the most challenging thing, and that goes double for Microsoft, since it needs to get its house in order while simultaneously building a new one to better serve this connected future. Can it do both? We'll have a better idea by the end of the week.

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